


wish i were heather

by gashinadiamond



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Friends to Lovers, Kinda, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon, Slow Burn, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26905474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gashinadiamond/pseuds/gashinadiamond
Summary: JJ's motto in life was to "deny, deny, deny"; but Pope doesn't think he can handle that anymore.Obviously inspired by the song Heather by Conan Gray + SKAM!!!
Relationships: JJ/Pope (Outer Banks)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 35





	1. definitely gonna win

The sun prickled Pope’s skin pleasantly as he lay on the warm surface of the HMS Pogue, eyes closed. It was summer again, and a much calmer and peaceful one than last year. He pried open an eye after hearing Kiara scream, to see her jump off the boat into the water and noticed John B and Sarah sitting together, whispering sweet nothings to each other. A wave of gratitude washed over his heart seeing them both alive, well and happy; out of Rafe and Ward’s reach. Turning his head back up, he closed his eyes again and took in the warm summer air. Things were great. Everyone was alive, criminals in their rightful place and the gold stashed away safely, for the use of the Pogues when required. He was gonna chill and have a good time, all the time.

Out of nowhere, Pope’s face was suddenly soaking wet. He coughed and sputtered, the taste of beer getting in his mouth, as he sat up and opened his eyes to look up at a laughing JJ holding a bottle upside down over his head.

“Dude, what the fuck?” He wiped his face and eyes as JJ continued to laugh.

“Didn’t you get enough sleep at night or something?” JJ teased, “Wake up! Get in the water! It’s a good day!”

He lightly hit Pope’s forehead with the bottle and walked away. Pope sighed and turned around to see JJ toss the bottle into the water and take his t-shirt off.

“Don’t let Kie see you do that.”

“Do what?” Kiara’s voice rang.

Pope turned around to see Kiara climbing aboard and turned back toward JJ to see the boy plead silently. See otherwise Pope would keep his mouth shut but JJ had just emptied a bottle of beer on Pope’s face so…

“JJ just threw a bottle into the water,” Pope smiled as he spoke to Kiara, whose face immediately went slack.

Pope turned around to see JJ glare daggers at him and he burst into laughter.

“JJ? WHAT THE HELL-”

Before Kiara could complete her sentence, JJ jumped into the water. Still laughing, Pope was joined by Sarah and John B while Kiara ran to the edge of the boat and screamed at JJ.

“YEAH YOU BETTER GET IN THERE BECAUSE WHEN YOU COME BACK I’M LITERALLY KILLING YOU!”

Pope fell back and rolled about in laughter but his cheer was interrupted when he felt Kiara kick him in the shin.

“Ow!”

“Pope, you saw he was gonna throw the bottle and you let him?”

Uh-oh. Kiara was coming for him now. He had to think fast. She kept scolding while John B and Sarah’s laughter was now directed at him. Maybe JJ was right when he…

Pope got up and jumped into the water too. Underwater, he could hear Kiara’s muffled shouting and began swimming away. After a few seconds, when it was safe (from Kie), he brought his head above the surface. JJ was nowhere to be seen. He swam around and reached a little further on the other side of the boat. Beneath the strong sunlight, Pope couldn’t see the water ripples that would indicate that someone was swimming there. Where the hell was JJ? He wouldn’t just swim away, it’s a long way back. With a splash, the water to his right broke apart revealing a laughing JJ.

“HEY POPE!” 

Pope let out a little squeal from sheer fright and clutched his chest which was pounding from the sudden scare.

“Bro, what the fuck are you doing?” Pope kicked him under the water, JJ’s laughing only grew louder.

“Did you think I was dead?” JJ asked with a smirk.

“No I didn’t. Dead bodies float in water because the bacteria in their torsos cause them to become buoyant.”

JJ scoffed.

“Oh yeah, I forgot you knew a freaky amount of shit about dead bodies.”

Pope shrugged.

“Well, anyway,” JJ shrugged back, “at least I know I can hold my breath underwater for really long now.”

JJ was showing off, so naturally, Pope’s instinct was to call him out on it, even if what JJ was saying was right.

“Come on, that wasn’t even _that_ long, it was like ten seconds. I can hold mine for longer.”

JJ smirked at Pope.

“Oh yeah? You really think so?” JJ pointed downwards, “Fine then. I challenge you right here, right now. I’m definitely gonna win.”

“Let’s see.”

JJ raised his fingers.

“On the count of three”

Pope and JJ inhaled as deeply as possible. JJ’s fingers slowly rose until he showed three and the two of them submerged.

Now that he was underwater, Pope realised that JJ was most likely to win, but it wasn’t like Pope was above cheating. Especially not in a fun breath-holding competition with his best friend. Consequently, his fingers reached out to JJ and danced on his shoulders, tickling the idiot. He immediately lost his breath and rose to the surface, Pope following right after so he could laugh in his face.

“Pope! That’s cheating, man!”

JJ looked offended and splashed water at Pope.

“You never said what the rules were! You never said no tickling!” Pope tried to defend himself.

“Fine okay then! The rules are: no cheating! Which means no tickling or punching or kicking or whatever. Keep your hands and legs to yourself. Okay?”

Pope chuckled and raised his hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay. Hands and legs to myself. Let’s go again.”

“Of course we’re going again!” JJ slicked his wet hair back, “On the count of three and I swear to God, Pope, no cheating.”

Pope nodded and took in a deep breath and sank along with JJ as he raised his third finger.

He was gonna take it seriously this time. Maybe if he concentrated he could hold it long enough. He opened his eyes to look at JJ looking at him. It was really calm and peaceful actually, just the sound of his heartbeat in his ears.

Slowly, JJ swam toward him. Obviously, after Pope cheated, JJ would immediately get revenge. One-upping each other is all they’ve been doing today, why did Pope expect anything different? He held his breath stronger, waiting for whatever JJ was gonna do to him to cheat. Instead, JJ’s hands pushed the water behind and his face came closer. Now Pope didn’t know what to expect, but it definitely couldn’t ever, _ever_ have been what actually happened.

JJ put his lips on Pope’s. His hands and legs were behind him, the only part of JJ touching Pope was his lips. The heartbeat in Pope’s ears quickened until it was deafening but surprisingly, his mind was empty. He couldn’t register anything apart from JJ’s lips on his. He only gained function in his body a few seconds later and shot himself up to the surface as soon as he could.

 _What_ just happened?

“JJ! JJ?!” Pope gasped and filled his lungs with new air. 

JJ was still underwater.

“JJ, come on up!”

As if on cue, JJ rose to the surface, laughing maniacally.

“I _told_ you that I was gonna win!! I am the champion!!” JJ fist bumped the air and cheered for himself. But all Pope could do was look.

“Dude, you ki-”

“Anyway, I’m feeling hungry so I’m gonna probably go there and get something to eat.”

JJ pointed at a shack next to the bank and immediately began swimming toward it, leaving Pope there, puzzled. All he could get himself to do was swim back to the boat, mind reeling and heart pounding.


	2. his idiot best friend

Getting back up on the boat, Pope was in a haze. John B and Sarah were swimming and splashing water at each other next to the Pogue and Kiara sat facing the sun on the deck. Walking over to Kie and sitting beside her, Pope’s mind was still underwater, feeling his best friend’s lips on his. He had never been that confused or surprised in his entire life, and him and his friends discovered fucking treasure!   
Turning next to him, he saw Kie was taking in the sun, eyes closed. She always knew what to do or what to say in any situation. Pope remembered his crush on her, a little bit of it was still there somewhere, but he was mostly over it; she had rejected him but while he took it hard at first, he realised the most important thing for him is her. He’d rather have her just as his best friend than not have her at all. She was the strongest and smartest person he knew, and he definitely trusted her the most out of the entire group with secrets. So that’s who he turned to.

“Hey Kie”

She opened her eyes and turned to look at him, smiling under the golden sunlight, radiant.

“Yeah?”

Pope gulped. He can’t just say that JJ kissed him. That wouldn’t be fair to JJ if he didn’t want anyone else to know, so he tried to talk his way around it.

“Have you ever been kissed suddenly by someone?”

Kie considered.

“Uh yeah. John B once kissed me impulsively but that’s it. Why?”

Pope hesitated as he thought of what to say but that immediately gave it away.

“Oh my god!?” Kie gasped, “Did you get kissed by someone?”

Well, there was nothing he could do now except shrug.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I did.”

Kie turned her entire body towards him, her complete attention on him and his words.

“Oh my god, who is it? Is it Kelly?”

‘Which Kelly?’ was Pope’s first thought. But then he remembered the Asian girl who once asked Pope for help in math, whom Kiara and JJ (naturally) began shipping Pope with as a joke. Pope never thought of her in that way, mostly because he was busy trying to get over Kiara around that time.

“What!? No! No. Not Kelly.” Pope clarified.

“Not Kelly?” Kie looked away, in deep thought, “If not Kelly, then who?”

Pope kinda ran into a corner there. He can’t say who it is but he doesn’t want Kie to start annoying him with ‘Polly’ as she calls their ‘ship’.

“The person doesn’t matter,” Pope tried to change the topic, “I just need your help with this.”

Kiara sighed and slumped her shoulders, less interested now.

“With what?”

Pope bit his lip and turned ahead. It would be easier if Kie was unable to read his expressions.

“Someone just kissed me, and I don’t know how to feel about it.”

“What do you mean, you ‘don’t know how to feel about it’?” Kie questioned, “You either feel something or you don’t. When John B kissed me, I felt weird because it was like kissing my brother.”

Okay, Pope knew he didn’t feel that way. Was that weird? But then again, Pope didn’t think of JJ as his brother. John B was more the brotherly figure, JJ was his idiot best friend, Sarah was like his little sister and Kiara… well, the less said about that the better.

“Well, it was quick, I didn’t have time to think what it felt like” Pope replied.

Kie furrowed her brows.

“So she kissed you and what? Like, ran away?”

Pope nodded. That is kind of what happened. He found himself thinking about what JJ might be doing now. What was he feeling? What was going on in his mind anyway? Why did he even kiss Pope?

“So uhh, I think you should try and talk to her. Ask her why she kissed you first. It’s possible it was just an in the moment thing or she could have feelings for you- You know, this would be easier for me if you told me who it is!”

Pope rolled his eyes.

“I’m not telling you that!”

“Okay then” Kiara shot back, “the next option is to figure out if you _want_ the kiss to be romantic. Do you?”

Pope closed his mouth abruptly. _Does he?_ I mean probably not, right? JJ is a guy. He doesn’t like men at all. Except for that one time when watching Thor: Ragnarok and Chris Hemsworth showed up shirtless and he gasped, but that was obviously because he has a great body that Pope wished he had. Or the time when there was a guy staring at Pope once at The Wreck and Pope couldn’t help but keep looking back at him, but then again, anyone would be conscious of a person looking at them across a room. And, of course, once when John B and he went surfing together and Pope fell on top of him, and felt his heartbeat race, though surely that was because of the adrenaline of falling over... So yeah, there’s a confusing situation.

“Uhh I don’t know- I mean, I don’t know how I feel about” Pope tried to make it sound as vague as possible, “uhh- her… _kind??_ ”

That ended up sounding worse.

“Wow, that’s racist” Kiara remarked.

“Racist?” The Pope realised that she probably still had Kelly on her mind, “What- No! Not Kelly, I already told you that! It’s not Kelly.”

“Okay fine but what do you mean by” she held up air quotes, “‘her kind’? Is she like a Kook or something?”

Okay, that was good. Pope latched onto that stream.

“Yeah, yeah she is. She’s a Kook and you know that I don’t like them and never liked them,” Pope remembered that he was talking to a Kook, “Sorry.”

Kiara waved the statement away.

“Nah, I know what you mean” Kie looked at him curiously, “A Kook girl? Well, now I’m very curious about who she is. Is she someone I know?”

Pope looked at her deadpan.

“Okay, okay, I’m not gonna ask. But she better not be someone I hate because trapping us together on a boat won’t work two times. But…” Kiara looked away, in deep thought, “those things shouldn’t matter, Pope. If you guys truly like each other, fuck the rest of the world.”

Kiara smiled at him kindly.

“Actually, I’m not sure if i like her or-”

“That’s okay, Pope, you don’t need to figure everything out yet. Just talk to her. Ask her about it and clear everything out. That’s all I can say for now.”

Pope relaxed and smiled back at her. She’s right. Just talk to JJ, clear everything out. Pope was sure it was probably just JJ cheating to win, knowing it would definitely shock him into losing. But he was going to ask JJ and get any confusion out of the way.

“Thanks, Kie. You’re the best.”

Kiara flipped her hair over her shoulder pompously.

“Yeah. I know.”

The two of them laughed as John B and Sarah climbed aboard and started recounting something that Sarah just did in the water. Meanwhile, Pope made a mental note to find JJ tomorrow and talk it out. He wasn’t going to let anything get between him and JJ. _Ever_.

**Author's Note:**

> my twt is @euphoricpugh if you want to cry about jjpope w me!


End file.
